“I think young drivers are always looked at and regarded as the next thing to come onto the big stage, whether it’s sports cars or Formula cars or NASCAR. I think it has been the same for quite some time, and I think the young guys winning is a testament that the talent is there regardless of what the age is.”

“The added drama about the questionable circumstances of his death ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ namely a car that was not safe enough to be on the road ?óÔé¼ÔÇØadd a universal theme, about how power and money corrupt, and can destroy when left unchecked.”

67 comments on “Williams were prepared to boycott Bahrain Grand Prix”

Good to see that the teams would have boycotted the race even if it went ahead, that would have sent a strong message to Bernie, the FIA and of course Bahrain. I only hope that all teams would have taken this view, though the lure of guaranteed points for some teams might have swayed their judgement.

I mean, if I believe anyone on the grid, it’d be Sauber, Williams, and McLaren, in that order – but still.

Presumably, though, anyone considering say that would know that people would be suspicious, and thus not say it unless he really meant it – of course, anyone who understood that line of reasoning would come to the conclusion that anyone hearing that line of reasoning would think the same, and thus say it even if it weren’t true, since people would think he wouldn’t say it unless it was true.

I thought the same immediately after reading this news.
Then again, Adam Parr was saying very strong words against going to Bahrain already on Friday right after there were People killed there. So it does fit together.

I think the teams were just maintaining dignity by keeping quiet. Why fan the flames when people are losing their lives. It would have been very easy to wax lyrical about the situation, passing judgement and pontificating but I’m with Frank Williams on this occasion. “Dignity at all times”!!

Once the decision has been made, there is no problem with expressing your political position but at the end of the day, it wasn’t their decision to make so keeping their mouths shut was the right call.

Get off your soap boxes and appreciate the difficult position everyone in F1 is was in.

Bahrain was never going to happen, even if the Crown Prince said yes. The teams would have arrived, seen that it was unsafe and had the race cancelled on the spot. The whole point of having the Crown Price decide whether the race was to go ahead or not was to challenge him to be realistic about the state of his country.

Yeah, it was an egalitarian move on Ecclestone’s part, doing his bit for the little guy. Ecclestone has said outright that democracy was one of the worst things that happened to Britain, and recently he said that he wanted “to be loyal to the king”.

I definitely get the impression that it’s targeted at NASCAR since Indy’s primary viewership is in the US, where NASCAR has a far bigger fanbase. It would be fun to see someone like RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen show up and put them all to shame. I have a hard time believing that anyone inside Indy (including the team mechanics, engineers, etc.) are going to let an outsider have a fair shot at it though.

I’m watching highlights of the 2009 Rally of Australia on DVD right now. Environmental protestors got one of the stages cancelled by throwing rocks on the road. Why do some Aussies hate motorsport so much???

Also, WRC is really brilliant once you make an effort to get into it. Although, as I type this Loeb has just slowed before the finish in an example of those annoying road order tactics they often do…

We don’t hate motorsport. Those protestors were a bunch of NIMBYs who didn’t want the event to go ahead because they seemed to think every koala in the area would be hit by a rally car that passed through. In truth, they simply didn’t want the event disrupting their lives, and failed to see the exposure that an international event would bring to the region. Most of them were from the upper-class, who had paid handsomely for land around the Tweed. Never mind the fact that the rally probably didn’t go anywhere near them; they were inconvenienced by it, so it had to go. Fortunately, the rally has moved to Coffs Harbour for 2011, which has hosted a round of the Australian Rally Championship for well over a decade. It’s become a part of life there.

Although, as I type this Loeb has just slowed before the finish in an example of those annoying road order tactics they often doâ€¦

There’s no real solution to it. First on the road has to sweep the top layers off, and so is naturally slower. But by the time you get down to about tenth or twelfth, the surface has been carved up and you lose position. They experimented a while ago with a random draw for running order, but it was so poorly organised that Colin McRae ended up first on the road because the drivers had been told “Go to Langley Park”, but they weren’t told which end. However, road order tactics seem to be banned – Loeb lost out big time in Sweden this year, but he never stopped on the road the way he usually would have.

NIMBY’s are all around the world. As far as I’m aware, many British racing circuits (like Croft in particular) have major noise restrictions due to these people despite the fact that the circuits been around much longer than most residents.

Spa is another example, a circuit that has been around since the 1920’s? and has recently had it’s racing license threatened by a local group. Unless the leader is in his 90’s, then the situation is not needed. If you don’t like the noise, why move near there? People can move, historic racing circuits can’t

Well it’s not necessarily a question of moving. Populations just expand, and it’s not like everyone gets to choose where they live. Plus just because people didn’t object to the noise before doesn’t mean it bothered them any less. It’s not like racing circuits are natural landmarks, no matter how much we might like them.

I noticed it begun to switch me to the mobile site yesterday. Downside is all the comments are in chronological order (which I know you’re working on) and that it doesn’t remember my details. But it’s good to have to load a story quicker and make an individual comment!

I think young drivers are always looked at and regarded as the next thing to come onto the big stage

Usually someone comes along with a stats table from the last 61 years of F1, revealing some amazing fact that has passed every living being by. until finally enlightened at the last possible moment before the round up… :D

Hypothetical, I know and with a few ‘ifs’ in place, but . . .
If the race had gone ahead, and if insurance cover had been in place, and if Williams had unilaterally decided to boycott Bahrein, as they claim . . . the FIA would have excluded them from the Championships, wouldn’t they? And Williams’ sponsors would have been more than slightly peeved, which Williams cannot afford.
I’m not sure I fully accept that Parr is being entirely truthful.

That is a little easy to say AFTER they have decided not to race there. I would respect that had they said it before the race was canceled, but now.. it just seems like they are trying to get some cheap PR to make the team look good.

Will they be boycotting China then or going along with the grand hypocracy of F1 which Bahrain demonstrated so well?.. F1 will only race in countries run by totalitarian regimes if you have managed to crush all dissent before we arrive, otherwise, to avoid bad PR, we will cancel until you get those pesky dissenters under control again.